Malaysian Airlines MH0017 AMS-KUL crashed in Donetsk, Ukraine

BREAKING news reports that a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, tail # 9M-MRD operating Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur as MH0017 with 280 passengers and 15 crew on board has crashed near the Ukraine-Russia border. Interfax is claiming the aircraft was shot down a surface-to-air missile.

NYT: Although the rebels have now denied shooting down the commercial airliner, earlier in the day Igor Strelkov, the republic’s Russian defense minister, took credit online for downing a plane he thought was Ukrainian.

NYT: On June 29, the official news agency RIA Novosti quoted a separatist from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic saying that pro-Russia militants had “assumed control of A-1402 military base,” equipped with “Buk mobile surface-to-air missile systems.”

Note: The Buk can fire missiles up to 72,000 feet.

NYT: Malaysia Airlines flight #MH17 was shoot down over Ukraine on 33,000 feet, 60 km east of Donetsk.

NYT: Sabrina Tavernise, who is a NYT reporter and who has been reporting on the separatist militants from the border region of Ukraine and Russia where the plane went down, was among the first reporters to reach the scene. She writes:

After strewing debris over an area of several miles, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 came to a rest in a large wheat field dotted with with purple flowers and ringed in Queen Anne’s lace. Incongruously, many of the bodies strewn about in the smoldering wreckage were largely intact, indicating that the plane had made at least a somewhat controlled landing.

As dark descended on the field, a light rain began to fall, casting a funereal pall over a scene of almost unspeakable horror. A woman in a black sweater top lay on her back, blood streaming from her face, her left arm raised as if signaling someone. Another victim, naked except for a black bra, lay on the field, her grey hair mixing with the green grasses, one leg broken and her body torn.

A young boy, who looked to be around 10 years old, lay on his side in a red T-shirt reading “Don’t Panic.”

Pieces of the plane were scattered across the road and field: a seat back with its television display cracked, a tail fin clearly displaying the colors of Malaysian Airlines. One televised image showed a travel guide for Bali, almost untouched.

The road was lined with fire engines and other emergency vehicles. Militiamen, plentiful in this rebel-controlled territory, urged journalists to take photographs. Rescue workers tied pieces of white cloth on nearby tree branches to mark where bodies were found.

There were no houses in the immediate vicinity. The only visible structure was a poultry operation with long white coops visible in the distance.

Many of the victims were still in their seat belts and attached to pieces of the plane. One man, still in his socks, but without pants, lay akimbo on the field, his right arm placed on his stomach, as if in repose.

A young man in blue shorts, wearing red Nike sneakers, lay with his arms and legs splayed outward, clutching his iPhone.

NYT: Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the State Security Service, known as the SBU, just released what it said was audio from intercepted phone calls between separatist rebels and Russian military intelligence officers on Thursday in which they appeared to acknowledge shooting down a civilian plane.

According to a translation of the Russian audio by the English-language Kyiv Post, the recording beings with a separatist commander, Igor Bezler, telling a Russian military intelligence official, “We have just shot down a plane.”

In another call, a man who seems to be at the scene says that a group of Cossack militiamen shot down the plane. He adds that it was a passenger plane and that the debris contains no sign of any military equipment. Asked if there are any weapons, he says, “Absolutely nothing. Civilian items, medical equipment, towels, toilet paper.”

Asked is there are any documents among the debris, the man of the ground says, “Yes, of one Indonesian student.”

Myroslava Petsa, a Ukrainian journalist in Kiev, said that the rebels sounded shocked by what they found in the wreckage.

NYT: Defense Department officials said late Thursday that they were examining the possibility that Ukrainian separatists with Russian advisers had fired a captured Ukrainian Army Buk missile system. The separatists do not otherwise have the technology to shoot down an airliner at such a high altitude, the officials said.

Another possibility, a senior Pentagon official said, was that Russian troops just across the border from eastern Ukraine may have fired the missile. In both scenarios, the senior official said, the missile operator most likely mistook the Malaysian airliner for a Ukrainian military transport plane. A third possibility, the official said, was that the Russians supplied the rebels with the missile.

Two senior Pentagon officials said military analysts suspected that the missile was either an SA-11 or an SA-20.

In what sense? For flying over war-torn airspace? Other airlines were flying over this airspace too. There should be an international mandate that it's impossible to fly over war-ravaged areas. In fact, not sure why that wasn't the case already...

And just today the FAA asked that all American airline companies avoid flying over Ukraine/Russian borders. So this could've easily happened to an American company. My question is...WHY isn't there an international group that regulates these things?

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday after the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 that U.S. airlines have voluntarily agreed to avoid airspace near the Russian-Ukraine border.

woodsmen saidNYT: Although the rebels have now denied shooting down the commercial airliner, earlier in the day Igor Strelkov, the republic’s Russian defense minister, took credit online for downing a plane he thought was Ukrainian.

In what sense? For flying over war-torn airspace? Other airlines were flying over this airspace too. There should be an international mandate that it's impossible to fly over war-ravaged areas. In fact, not sure why that wasn't the case already...

I said they should be, not that they will be. I doubt there's a lot of commercial flights over Syria, Gaza City or Iraq right now. They took their chances to save a few bucks in fuel and got 290 people killed flying over a war zone